This is a great manga. I'm reading it for the 2nd time as I enter my 30th year (and I've watched the anime as a kid). Still as amazing as the first time I got into it.

Style and tone of manga change over the years, different audiences are introduced. Still doesn't downplay the quality of any works. All opinions are subjective. I believe this is an amazing manga. Still subjective, but amazing in my books.

The world building, style, humor, characters, story. There's always something that pops out from the page with this manga. I can easily see Heart Kreuz being a real clothing line in our world. Even if some stuff is recycled into Fairy Tail, still great.

JMO, but I'd say this is a good blueprint for adventure shonen manga.

Rave is a journey of Haru Glory, the 2nd generation of Rave Master. Rave in itself is something like a holy bringer to dark bringer, magical item that gives various power to their owners but corrupting them at the same time.

First, I have to say that Mashima is great at drawing character (fan service is one of his specialty after all) and secondly, I have always admired how he designed worlds after worlds in his story. Both of these point has been true in Rave also, but then I have to concede that the plot is standard shonen. As Haru move from one place to another, he met people, some of whom would join him in his journey, and then fought, move to another place, meet people, fought. Rinse and repeat.

Even so, I had enjoyed Rave. Reading it is akin to hop into an RPG game. You get to follow Haru's adventure from one place to another, feel his joy and sorrow, and feel it to the end. This story is for all of us who yearns to go on adventure after all. You just need to remind yourself that it is not exactly One Piece and that you are reading one of Mashima's works to appreciate it.

As in the best written manga Mashima has created and will most likely never be surpassed, because his other work Fairy Tail wasn't capable of doing so despite having great potential. Eden's Zero however may be different because I have heard interesting things about it so far, but the issue I have with EZ is that it looks way to similar to it's predecessor in terms of character design, however I may give EZ a third chance (because I've dropped it two times so far, so the third try will be the last).

I recommend buying the manga since the scans for most of the later chapters are awful, but if you don't want to buy it the scans get better in quality over time, but you will have to be patient with it.

Also the person below me calling Rave Master characters discount versions of Fairy Tail's clearly does not know that Rave Master came out first

... Last updated on January 22nd, 2022, 3:46pm

Rave from the author of Fairy Tail is a regular battle shonen story. It is the story of Discount Natsu becoming the Rave Master and has to find the rave stones to unlock his full potential. However the stones were scattered due to an explosion 50 years ago. Now Discount Natsu must journey the world to find these stone in hopes to find these magic stones. Along the journey he will gain many friends and allies including discount Lucy who has lost her memory and her plot point is totally not related to the rave at all, totally. There is however an anti rave organization. Called the Demon card. They will do whatever it takes to do regular bad guy stuff that bad guys do. Also rule the world (bet you didn't see that coming),

Now considering this was made by Hiro mashima himself I didn't really have high expectations after reading Fairy tail. However i was also completely right. This series is by every definition medicore. The Characters are as generic as they can be. To the villains, to the main characters, to the nice guy bad guys, to the bad guy nice guys, to the evil government. It is literally amazing how many cliches there are in this series. This is like 101 on how to make a battle shonen. The deaths are underwhelming, the dialogue is cringey. The only legitimate entertainment this series has is the fight scenes which is really important for a battle shonen. I mean this manga took every single by the book thing a battle shonen could do like omg. Honestly the most surprising thing in this series is how everything is so incredibly predictable. Everything is just so cliche. Regardless that doesn't mean the series is bad in itself. Its really how you play the cliches that depend. And the author plays them incredibly medico-rely. 0 risks were taken when making this manga. At least most of the time which i will get to.

Now the action itself which is easily the most important of any action series. Its good. Now don't get me wrong it also cliche. But the author does do a ok job of hyping and tagged with his art and amazing double page spreads i think we get some amazing panels. Now discount Natsu has a sword which has 10 forms meaning that they can deus ex machina when need to be. Literally this was created so they can be whatever they want to be when the need arises. Its pretty cliche. If you think I've said cliche too many times. I haven't even gotten to part 2 of the series yet. The fights are also cliche but they do have there own sense of style. Which i guess is really the only actually good part about the series.

There is a massive power creep issue with this series. Where the fuck were all these characters before? The author just keeps pulling monsters 1 out of the other. But the real issue i had with this series is that the main characters kept fucking getting ridiculously stronger as well . Holy shit like you think after the 7th time they used there ultimate ability that has a 1% of succeeding and 99% of failing resulting in there death you'd think it would fail at least once. The power was a major issue in this. Everyone was somehow able to keep with little to no explanation and even if an explanation was given it was pretty BS. I mean i have no idea what the author was thinking., but at least it had style.

Honestly though this stuff did matter and did pull the series without a doubt the worst part about this series are the female character. This has some of the poorest written heroines i have seen in a while. Like Discount Lucy every single time. needs rescuing. She gets forcibly kissed and loses her will to **defend herself for the entire firght**. It is insane. The only real decently written heroine was one of the villains who was basically Discount Juvia. She was also drawn sexily like every single heroine with a name but she had gutso and her personality didn't revolve around screaming discount Gray's name. Now there is another strong heroine but because her clothing gets conveniently ripped **every single time** im not counting her. It really is disappointing because fan service is also a major issue with this series. There is an entire underwater mermaid arc so the author can draw half naked chicks. for an entire arc. It is also one of the longest arcs in the series. Its funny too since this was actually the turning point in the series. The quality got noticeably better. Not like really good but you could see a visible improvement in the series as a whole. Issues with paneling and fights scenes become smoother. I do wish people relaize as great as cleavage and mid driffs are. Women don't need to wear lvl 99 armor all the damn time. Honestly Fairy Tail's fanservice is way worse but this is still a major issue and legitmatly upsetting and un-entertaining part about the series. I've also seen people compare this to male fan service in the series saying its equal but there is a very big difference. Male fanservice is used for comedic purposes whilst Female fanservice is used for sexually pleasing purposes. And the latter really is way worse.

The characters though cliche were also entertaining in there own right. Like there are many bad ass moments involving the characters as a whole. So many rage moments which are exemplified by the double pages and do there jobs. I like this and it is always entertaining to watch the good guys get pissed and absolutely destroy everyone. Now the villians were definitely the main issue. The author pulls the whole bad guy turned good at last minute and does sacrifice so he has paid for his sins BS. Which is completely and horribly wrong man. There is this guy who is a total Richard. Like a hardcore Richard. But the MC forgives Him... WAT😕? Like the crap he did is worth execution and you are just letting him go. Its honestly insane how much the good guys let bad guys go and it works in there favour. I also enjoyed the fact that some of the characters do actually die. Not last minute rescues death. Fairy Tail has to be the only series where 100% of the cast is alive in the beginning and by the end of it 120% of the cast is alive. thankfully though only 98% of the cast is alive in Rave giving somewhat real depth to the fights that were always to the death.

The best character however is Discount Jellal. This guy is fucking insane and i'm in love with him. All the unique personality all the well written drama. This guy has it. Discount Jellal really was by far the best fucking character in this series. Every time he showed up on screen,, hype was heavy inducing.

I will say this though. Volumes 31-34 are amazing. This is like it was written a by different person entirely. and im so mad that it took me 2 days to read volumes 1-30 yet it took me less than 2 hours to read volumes 31-34. Like this is next level stuff. I won't say the entire series is worth reading for these volumes alone. But it defnitly took me by surprise. This is where all the passion and quality went. this is was legitmatly entertaining exciting edge of the seat action. Though it isn't worth reading 30 volumes for especially cuz of the ending (which i will get to) but it was definitely where author actually feels like he took risks. and actually made the series more and more fun.

As far as endings go. I mean you wish for more. Especially when it comes to ships but discount Fairy Tail cast can only get so much. It does enough in terms of the main couple you want. But i do wish side characters got more closure but i guess we are gonna have to live with Implied.

TLDR: Medicore, but it was just good enough at times for me to give it more than just a pass. 6/10

nah, this is just some dumb series for dumb kids, more than a real fighting shonen. I swear it, this would be better as a "Kodomo" manga than a shonen and just someone very stupid would love this shit (like me in the past).

... Last updated on March 23rd, 2021, 4:32pm

Starts off well enough but later on it shows its colors, well hard to expect anything serious from the same guy who makes Fairy Tail, still I'm not particularly fond of dumbness and the "I'll fill the world with darkness because I'm evil" reasoning is annoying, "I'll stop you 'cause I'm good and light", that goes around in circles, that's the depth of the plot which by the way is full of holes, might be enticing in your early teens but I'm not in my early teens.
Also, it's way too naive, how many guys turn good after being defeated, chars die and revive all the time and as in FT the "emotions are strength" setting is boring, as a is the overused "I won't kill" preset, most manga simply can't use it without being cliched, dumb and naive so they fail, as far as I can remember the only series that managed were Trigun, History's strongest disciple Kenichi and Gundam seed. But the worst part is how they keep talking about justice yet let a guy that killed thousands go just because he had "a change of heart" since even if he did have it he can't change what you have done, that, is not justice, it's BS.
Even so, I like it more than I like Fairy Tail at least (only saw FT anime thou, needless to say I didn't like it much). Chars are actually likable and funny at times, the action is good and there are a few moving and exciting moments. And, as I said the start is good and as it happens, I liked the last 1/4 of the manga too.
Other than that, I agree with much what Jools said thou I don't find the chars that terrible.

... Last updated on October 20th, 2015, 7:11am

It was good cliche but good worth reading non the less. But what really did it for me was that very last rave 00077 I was like ..........((((!!!O.O!!!)))) had to quickly go back and read them all again so don't skip any of them!

If this would've been one of my first experiences of manga, then surely I would've enjoyed it a lot more. But I'm used to all the tropes, clichés and mundane stories by now, and this is definately one of them.

There are only two scenes in the entire manga that I felt was up to par (certainly not with the great ones, but at least a good one), and both of those were deaths, so there's bound to be a little more feeling in them.

The story is bland, the characters are forgettable, the humor... the humor is borderline great at times, but it's not a treasure trove. It's a sack filled with coal and a few of them happen to be diamonds.

The art is similar to Fairy Tail (duh.) and One Piece. Nothing too intricate, but I'm definately not a fan of the current artstyle-craze (that's in bloody EVERYTHING), so I'd say that's a plus.

If you're in it for the fights, steer clear. They're among the worst. Some enemies have pretty cool powers, but it all comes down to Haru and his will, so no matter what power they have, they lose anyway. Without any real reason, other than that he's the Rave Master. Because when I say comes down to Haru, I REALLY mean it. The others have their few moments, but in general, it's Haru Haru Haru Haru, Raaaaaa~ve Maaaaaaaaa~stah! and he always manages to defeat EnemyX because he gets angry, or learn a new skill for his sword, or because of willpower. Snore. Snore. Snore. Snore.

Oh, and the characters' personalities are asinine. Complete tropes without ANY depth.

The five is for while all of its faults, it didn't bore me. ...Not saying that I enjoyed it either, though.

If you care about depth, intelligence and quality in a Shounen-manga, this isn't something for you. If you just want something mindless that's just like everything else out there, by all means.

I feel the need to finally review based on more and more people bringing this up. "Rave has a better storyline."

I am not denying that Rave's story is interesting, because it's certainly is. But the fact of the matter is that Rave follows many of the storylines featured over and over in Japanese RPGs. And some manga as well, but throughout this story, it was like playing a "Tales of [...]" game.

However, with Rave, it is ONE story. There are side stories, small adventures, but from the first chapter there is one and only one objective. "Save the world using Rave" (basically.)

Fairy Tail, on the other hand, has a few large questions (like the dragons and Lucy's mom), but is not one single story. It is a series of connected stories, the arcs, featuring the same characters.

Both manga Plot Shield like mad, but all shonen manga do. Good guys are crazy hard to kill, don't lose twice to the same enemy, power up for seemingly no reason other than being a good guy and having friends, being able to fight when there is ABSOLUTELY NO WAY THAT IS EVEN PHYSICALLY POSSIBLE! Every action manga has this. Heck, every action ANYTHING has this. Rave has this. FT has this. FT has it a bit more because FT is longer (now) and has more boss battles.

But it's certainly a fun ride. Laughter was laughed (omg chapter 170), tears were cried (...like, lots), and enjoyment was had. My only real complaint was that Let and Julia didn't get much "screen time" together! Even in cover shots, Julia was more often placed near Musica than Let. Granted, Musica's got a bit of the womanizin', but JULIA.

In the end, Rave is good. It's not the be-all-and-end-all of manga, but it's certainly worth reading. (But, if you're coming from Fairy Tail looking for a second Fairy Tail, let me just say... Hiro didn't quite have the S&M thing down yet.)

... Last updated on August 22nd, 2014, 5:02am